Health Check-Ups & Prevention

Angry Cat at the Vet – Fractious Cat Restraint

Hi, I’m Megan. Today we’re going to deal with an angry cat. This is Max, and he’s been vomiting and losing weight, and so he’s here today so we can examine him, and draw some blood. He has been fired from other veterinary hospitals, and so we know that he has a history of being angry. He’s in here kind of growling at us and preparing for the worst. So, we are getting set up. Since I know he’s angry, we’re just going to assume that we’re going to need some some pretty heavy restraint on him. So I’ve got a cat muzzle out. In my opinion, this is the best invention for cat restraint ever. It’s a really hard plastic, kind of patent-y and it goes over there, you know, his face is going to go in here and we tighten it down behind his ears but he can still open his mouth, he can scream, he can hiss, he can breathe unobstructed, which i think is a problem with other cat muzzles. When they can’t open their mouths, they feel like they can’t breathe. That becomes a real problem. So goal number one is going to be and try and get this on his face. I also have a big blanket. This is not a cat that a towel is going to help with, so we’ve got a big thick blanket. Sarah is going to help me, so there’s going to be two of us working on him, and the goal is just going to be to be as efficient as possible. I have everything ready. I have a thermometer, I have a scale, everything I’m going to need to draw blood work. We don’t want to anger him and then have to shuffle around and find our supplies. Also kind of on board with the doctor so she knows exactly the order that we’re going to do things. She’s got a plan in her head, we don’t want to get this angry cat, out do a bunch of stuff, put him back, and then have the doctor come back five minutes later, oh by the way, do you mind doing this? So just make sure there’s a lot of communication when you have an angry animal so that you can get everything done, get him put away, and on his way. This is a carrier that opens from the top, but I am going to just take the carrier apart. This is kind of a small hole for us to get our hands in and drag him out of, so I’d rather just you know we’ll kind of pop all these, and then when we’re ready we’ll take the top off, get the blanket on him, and pull him out. I’m not a big fan of dumping cats out the front, just in case he bolts and we lose him- that’s not a good situation. You don’t ever want to have to pull a cat out from under cupboards, or you know under a shelf, or under a cage or anything like that. Certainly excaping out the front door, running into some dogs. All bad news. So we want to be as controlled as possible. I don’t know, now something’s up buddy, okay. All right, he wants to go hide in there. Okay, so I am just gonna pay attention to where his head is. So I’ve got my hand just kind of around his neck, to control his head. This cat, it’s never going to do us any good to scruff him. I think a scruff is a really good tool when you need to kind of immobilize a cat if he’s struggling a little bit when you’re trying to get blood. But when a cat is really angry and you scruff them, and you pull tighter and tighter and they struggle more and more, they actually can’t breathe anymore. It puts enough pressure on their trachea. So when I have a really angry cat I don’t scruff at all. I’m just going to kind of pin his head down. So I know his head is right here. Just pin his neck down so that he can turn and bite through the blanket if he wants to, but, just control that head. We’ll kind of get his feet under the blanket as we need to and then just go from there. So a lot of angry cat restraint is just holding them down to the table, which Sarah is going to do. So now I’m going to turn him so his head is facing towards me and we’re going to get the muzzle on. There we go. Okay, So just kind of feed his head in there, make sure the straps get behind his ears, and then cinch it down. It’s not impossible for him to get this muzzle off, if he gets his back legs up there, he can certainly flip it off over his head. But now I know that his teeth are covered, and he still has a lot of room to breathe in there. He’s still growling. Oftentimes just getting things dark, it’s going to help him. He’s not going to, you know, be able to see us moving around and, you know, anticipate movements toward him. So we’ll just kind of leave him in the dark, and next we’ll get a weight. Max, he’s just kind of gone limp here, which is in our favor. Okay, no bolting. All right, 14 pounds. Okay. All right, now that he has a correct weight, if we do get in trouble and we need to move to sedation, we’ve got that important piece of information and we can just move right to it. So Sarah’s got his front half, I just have some hands on his back feet. These cats can do some really good damage with back claws when they start bunny kicking, so it’s my job to protect the doctor, and so far so good. All right, so we got a quick physical exam done. He gave us a good urine sample, so that’s always helpful. He has been able to get out of his muzzle. This is, you know, we all need to be talking to each other. If I see that happen, I need to make sure Sarah knows his teeth are out so she’s going to be careful with that. If he’s struggling and I’m close to losing his back legs, if Sarah’s restraining him for something and she’s about to lose control of him, just let everybody know. You’ve got to yell it and say I’m losing it, so whoever is close to his face can step back if he does escape and get off the table, that’s better than, you know, having one of us get bit by a cat. You know, we can find him, retrieve him, and get him back. But nobody wants to go to the hospital. So I’m going to draw blood from this cat. I don’t anticipate him behaving very well so I’m going to use a butterfly catheter. This is a 23 gauge butterfly catheter. The reason that I like these is that it gives him the opportunity to struggle a little bit, and I’m not gonna lacerate his vein. You know if I’ve got this syringe on it and he moves around it’s pretty easy to cause some trauma there. Okay, so we’re gonna move him into a kennel now, and that’s where he’ll hang out until his owner is ready to come get him. So we’re not going to take any of the blankets or anything off of him, we’re just going to pick up the whole mass, and just move him into his kennel. So Sara’s still got a good hold on his head, so I’m just going to kind of help with the back end here and we’ll use an entire queen’s bed worth of laundry to get him picked up. All of that bedding in there will be helpful and it’s time to pull him back out again. We’ll use all the same big blankets and then get him out of here. So we’re back with Max, and after further discussion with the owner, we do want to do a good oral exam on him. There’s some concern for dental disease, and he obviously is not going to let us get a good look without some heavy sedation. So we’re going to give him some dexdomitor, and in order to do that we’re going to need to get him out of the cage. So he is already aware that I’m going to do something that he doesn’t like. The key to getting angry cats out of a kennel is to just do it very quickly and be very decisive about it. The more I flinch and kind of move around he’s going to learn very quickly what’s going on and he’s going to be able to get around it, and perhaps escape or cause injury. So I have another nice thick blanket I’m just going to go in, cover him with this blanket, again find where his head is going to kind of put my hands on either side of his neck and then just scoop him up and go from there. Okay and now we’re just gonna kind of wait, until he calms down enough. So we’ve done our oral exam, and we reversed his dexdomitor, and he’s now picking his head up and moving around on his own. So I’m going to let him recover the rest of the time in his own carrier so that we don’t have to get him out of a cage again. Oh buddy, okay, all right so he’s looking good, he’s definitely aware of his surroundings. Lock him in here, and now he is ready to go. We have successfully treated him and none of us got injured and he is no worse for the wear.

I had a cat like that one time. He was very aggressive. I took it from a friend of mine before he got like that. His girlfriend abused the cat. She'd pick it up by it's tail and either carry it or throw it accross the room. After I took it from them. Even though I was nice to the cat. My arm was covered in blood several times. So I had to get rid of it

Cats bite 3xs more people annually than dogs bite. We only ever hear about those "horrible" pit bulls tho( and NO!!! Im NOT, nor have i ever been a pit bull owner!! Im not an idiot either tho!! ) its not the dog…wait, its NOT THE DOG who is the problem, its the DOG OWNER!!!🤬💔😖🤬I say…start euthanizing the asshole owner who forces or teaches the dog to be a headcase like its owner and see how quick we stop killing these dogs we create monsters out of!Now, back to our regularly scheduled program😳lmao.Cats bites 3Xs as much. We dont kill them for it! N we shouldnt kill the dog either. Thats pretty stupid

I've done cat-rescue for ten years now and Cats that are mean are often just scared — not that different from people. My own little guy is going on 20 years with me now and when I got him at about 1 year he was a frightened mess…. Abused and frightened — cigarette burns all over him from some evil asshole. But today he is so chill and happy (unless a large dog comes around). I've found in my work any cat (not mentally ill) will chill out and come around with some patience, kindness, and respect. Cats are so special.

These people know what they are doing. Some animals are just "crazy" I've saw cats that are nuts to everyone yet they are like gentle little butterflies when it comes to their own owner and for no reason. They cling to the one and hate everything else on earth. Dogs can be the same way. Love their owner and yet would eat up anything else that would dare come within their visual area. These girls handled an animal that would terrorized a dozen strong men and didn't have to use anything that hurt it in any way. awsome.

My cat didn’t mind the vet. Even after exams and shots and that eye dropper of pink stuff they shot up his nose he would lie down on the receptionists desk and take a nap while I wrote the check. He was a big baby.

This gal and he assistant are worth their weight in gold to the vet she works for. Great skill and temperament for the job all had..make any pet owner at ease bringing their pet to them for care. Thank you for making and sharing this video.

I got bit by a biggie, 1/2 to 3/4 " deep fangs into forearm while breaking up a cat fight, nastiest bacterial infection I had. Looked like I got hit by a rattler. Cats back feet are meant to do maximum damage to the gut of the other cat.

People like this are lifesavers for people with cats like this. My cat is a sweetheart at home but hates strangers and especially the vet. Some people have cats so aggressive they start running out of places that are willing/able to provide them with the care they need.